An immersive art installation in Delray Beach hopes to capture the sprawling, fragile beauty of the Florida Everglades inside a gallery.
The Cornell Art Museum is anchoring its fall debut with "River of Grass," an ambitious, three-part collaboration with 19 South Florida fiber artists, curated in partnership with the Hollywood Art and Culture Center in Broward.
Honoring Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s landmark 1947 book, the show features giant textile works created directly on standing looms — a massive installation that the artists say weaves together the urgent ecological narrative of our wetlands and reflects the delicate South Florida ecosystem.
“Fiber becomes a metaphor for this delicate network and for the relationships between people and the environment they inhabit," said Aurora Molina, artist and co-founder of Fiber Artists Miami Association (FAMA).
“Ultimately, "River of Grass" asks us to consider the Everglades not as a landscape outside of ourselves, but as part of our shared identity, something we inherit, transform, and have a responsibility to protect for the generations that follow.”
Jodi Sypher, exhibition curator from the Center, told WLRN "he climate is just very important and is literally crying out for our attention."
“We get our drinking water from the Everglades and it needs to be protected," she said.
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The Everglades' freshwater flow recharges the Biscayne Aquifer, providing essential drinking water to over 9 million South Floridians while preventing oceanic saltwater from contaminating the supply.
The Biscayne Aquifer and South Florida’s broader water supply face several major threats, rapid population growth, aging draining system, agricultural and urban runnoff, and rising seas, which push saltwater into the porous Biscayne Aquifer, jeopardizing coastal wellfields.
The organizers say the exhibition serves as both a creative expression and an educational tool.
The show weaves natural elements like palm and sedge into three-dimensional art, said Marusca Gatto, the cultural arts director at the Cornell Art Museum.
“It's a more gentle way of encouraging people to understand the environment,” she told WLRN. “To understand the world that we live in.”
IF YOU GO:
What: River of Grass
When: October 2, 2026 - January 24, 2027
Where: Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33444
For more information, see here.
